I speak not of you all. I know those whom I have chosen; but that the scripture might be fulfilled, He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.
The foot-washing is over. Now the Lord narrows His words: what He has just said does not cover everyone at the table. He quotes an old line of Scripture about a man who shared bread and then turned on his host. He applies it to someone in the room.
The Lord had already hinted at a traitor while washing feet. Now He says something plainer, and it draws a line through the room.
The way the Lord removes Judas shows His tender care for His own. The treachery of Judas, long known to the Lord, is very gently disclosed to His disciples. During the foot-washing the Lord had referred to Judas, and the eleven did not seem to notice. Now He speaks more plainly: "I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen." There was an inner circle of the Lord's chosen companions to whom He was about to disclose the secrets of His heart. But there was one present who had no part in that chosen circle.
Judas held a real appointment. The choice the Lord speaks of here is a different one, and Judas was outside it.
He did not speak of all the disciples then present — a sad sign of what would become far more common in later days. He knew whom He had chosen out: Judas was not among them, though he was called to be an apostle. He had never known the Lord, knew nothing truly of His grace or of His mind, and was not born of God. Why then did he receive that place of honour among the apostles, constantly attending the Lord here below?
The image is harsh: a shared meal, then a lifted heel.
With the sense of what lies before Him, He foretells the defection of Judas. This only fulfils the Scripture. It was written: "He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me." His heel! The most contemptuous rejection possible. Was it not contempt to sell the Lord of glory for the price of a slave? It was as if he would inflict on Christ the serpent's predicted doom.
Kelly weighs Judas against an old picture of Israel, called there by the poetic name Jeshurun.
"Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked" long ago; "he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation." Judas went far beyond that. He was guilty of indifference to the Son of God, who had come down in love and humiliation. He was eager to serve himself at any cost, and he betrayed his gracious Master for a pitiful sum. Never was there such love, and never such contempt and abuse of it — and this in a man who had a special duty to be faithful. ... How wonderful the patience which, knowing all from the beginning, bore all to the end, without a frown or any sign of shrinking from the traitor!
A choice like this could have raised doubts about the Master Himself.
If the Lord could foresee what Judas would do, why was he chosen? Would such a question raise a doubt about the Master in any one of the eleven? Earlier in His ministry He had indicated that there was one of them whom He then called a devil. He now spoke of that same man, still unnamed. He showed why this man had a place among the twelve — so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The coming treachery was no surprise: God knew it beforehand, and Scripture predicted it.
Being foretold did not make Judas a victim of the prediction.
Scripture had foretold this, though the fact does not in the least excuse the guilt of Judas: he was himself responsible for the callous deceit of eating with the Lord while plotting to betray Him.
Notice the order. The betrayal would shake the eleven, so He props up their faith first.
Their faith would be shaken that one of them could do such a thing. So before speaking of His own deep trouble, He first provided for them... Is this not the most marvellous grace? He thinks first of the consequences for them, before speaking of the consequences for Himself.
The very thing that might have wrecked their confidence became evidence for it. They were in danger of stumbling over such a man's betrayal. Instead, Kelly writes, the clear fulfilment of Scripture "was meant to strengthen their faith in every written word of God."
- Chosen. The verse holds two choices. Judas was chosen for the office of apostle, but never among those the Lord chose in grace.
- Bread. Being close to Christ made the crime worse, not better — he ate at the table of the One he sold for the price of a slave.
- Heel. The lifted heel is the most contemptuous rejection possible — treating the Lord of glory as something to kick aside.
- Scripture. God knew the betrayal beforehand and had it written down. That leaves no room for doubt about Christ — and none for excusing Judas.
- Comfort. The same word that exposed the traitor held the eleven steady. He provided for their faith before He spoke of His own sorrow.
I tell you [it] now before it happens, that when it happens, ye may believe that I am [he].
The traitor is still at the table, still unnamed, and the eleven remaining disciples have no idea. Jesus warns them first, and He says why. When the blow falls, their faith in who He is must stand.
The verse turns on timing: He speaks now, and not before. One writer explains why an earlier warning was impossible.
He had not told them before, or they could not have carried on. They could not have carried on with Judas and stayed right before God. It would not have been possible. But now that time was over. The Lord was about to go. Judas was about to be separated from them. Now He may tell them. The example He sets lacks no love; He speaks because their good requires it, in righteousness and truth. How well timed is the Lord's "From this present time"! He could not have told it any earlier than "before it comes to pass." To their faith it would have looked like weakness in Him, as if He could be wrong.
The danger was not only the betrayal itself, but the conclusion the disciples might draw from it. If a traitor sat among them unnoticed, was their Master really who He claimed to be?
This disclosure might well be a shock to the disciples and a test to their faith. Unbelief might have reasoned, "We did not know the traitor was here. But if Jesus did not know either, can He really be the Lord of glory?" The Lord deals with such reasoning in advance. He supports their faith by revealing the coming betrayal before it happens... Through the betrayal of Judas they will have fresh evidence. He is indeed the great I AM, who knows everything, and to whom the future is already present.
Another writer names the enemy who stood to gain from the arrest and the cross.
At this point the Lord told them what lay ahead of Him. He foretold it so that when it happened, their faith in Him would not be shaken. How the enemy would have used the fact of the Lord's arrest and death to shake their faith in the truth of His person! He knew it well, for all hearts, even the devil's, lie open to Him. So He foretold His betrayal here. Their faith in Him would then grow stronger instead of weaker.
Commentators differ on how much weight this short phrase carries. Hamilton Smith, above, hears in it the great I AM. Another writer ties the phrase to the psalm Jesus has just quoted.
In John 13:19 the translators rightly give it as "I am he." He is identifying Himself with the One spoken of in Psalm 41 — the One whose own table companion would lift up his heel against Him.
Jesus quoted an old text and announced its fulfilment before it happened. That did two things at once.
So the Lord proved His perfect and divine knowledge of what still lay in the future. At the same time He taught the priceless worth of Scripture, and not least of prophecy still unfulfilled. He met unbelief in every form, in believers as well as in unbelievers... Jesus is never so clearly the Messiah as when He points ahead to the word of Scripture, soon to be fulfilled in His own rejection and death on the cross.
One writer draws a wider rule from this way of speaking.
This testimony beforehand was evidence of truth... In the same way, every sorrow that seems to disprove faith ends up confirming it. What seems to discredit our hope in the Lord proves its truth and strength instead... He tells the disciples beforehand, as something owed to them, so their faith would not be shaken. That is the blessing of being close to Him. The world learned it in the accomplished fact.
Notice the order in the chapter. The warning to the eleven comes out before Jesus says a word about His own inward trouble.
Their faith would be shaken that one of them could do such a thing. So before He spoke of His own deep trouble, He first provided for them... Is this not the most marvellous grace? He thinks first about what this means for them, and only then speaks of what it means for Himself.
- Timing. Told any earlier, the disciples could not have carried on beside Judas. Their faith would also have read the warning as weakness in Him.
- Purpose. He does not speak to inform them. He speaks so their trust in who He is survives the betrayal.
- Person. "I am he" is what they must believe. Writers differ: some hear the great I AM, others the One foretold in Psalm 41.
- Proof. The disaster turns into evidence. His word came true, which proves His divine knowledge and the worth of Scripture.
- Pattern. The enemy's weapon strengthened their faith instead. He arranged that for them before He spoke of His own sorrow.